newbie

[ajtvw]

Hi all, great forum!
A friend of mine slacked with upkeep on his much loved '89 Florida cabriolet and passed it along to us as a cabby rescue project. It has 177,000 miles on it. We've been staunch vw fans for a while, having had 4 jettas and two other cabbies in the family. This is my first cabby and we are making good progress with rescuing it from the junk heap.
First we replaced the blown head gasket and changed the oil a few times. It was still running rough , so we looked at the fuel injectors. One was bad, so replaced that. Now runs smoothly, but not perfect yet.
The clutch was bad, so I bought a Duralast clutch kit and son installed it today, along with a new flywheel. Now he's having difficulty adjusting the clutch cable, says it seems 'too long'. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Do they stretch out past the point of no return or what?
Top is quite leaky and I see lots on info on that here which I will be checking out. Is top replacement something that can be accomplished by a careful, handy person?
thanks,
Alice
pics soon!

[Briano1234]

The clutch was bad, so I bought a Duralast clutch kit and son installed it today, along with a new flywheel. Now he's having difficulty adjusting the clutch cable, says it seems 'too long'. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Do they stretch out past the point of no return or what?
Top is quite leaky and I see lots on info on that here which I will be checking out. Is top replacement something that can be accomplished by a careful, handy person?
thanks,

Yes Cables do stretch, and then if the adjuster is all the way out, you need to retract that.
I have seen clutch tubes cut through cables and or is it the cable that cuts through the clutch tube.

I may be that the throw-out bearing is gone, so did you replace that? it is under the green end plate, then the finger that holds the throw-out bearing goes bad.

Tops are easy to replace if you follow the instructions to the letter and you need basic tools (listed) and patience. I used a hand stapler on my first one. If you have any questions then feel free to ask me here. I have done a few tops and have a little more than average experience doing them.

The most current how-to in in the body section here.

[kamzcab86]

First we replaced the blown head gasket and changed the oil a few times. It was still running rough , so we looked at the fuel injectors. One was bad, so replaced that. Now runs smoothly, but not perfect yet.

If you haven't done so, give the car a complete tune-up and check/fix any vacuum leaks. After that, go to http://cabby-info.com/cis and perform the tasks there.

The clutch was bad, so I bought a Duralast clutch kit and son installed it today, along with a new flywheel. Now he's having difficulty adjusting the clutch cable, says it seems 'too long'. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Do they stretch out past the point of no return or what?

Is the cable new? If not, install a new one. Clutch cables are inexpensive parts and most folks keep a spare one in the trunk.

Is top replacement something that can be accomplished by a careful, handy person?

Lots of folks have done it. Here's a complete how-to: http://www.atomicalex.com/art/VW%20Conv%20Tops_r.pdf .

[gull]

When you lift the clutch release arm on the trans with your fingers, where does it stop? You should get firm resistance at about the 9 o'clock (horizontal) position. If it goes up much more than that with finger pressure, you have issues inside the transmission. If it stops at that point, the problem is with the cable or pedal cluster. There's a really good description here:
http://www.brokevw.com/releasearm.html